Canada Yearbook - 1920

OBITUARY ?47
for employers to continue furnishing employment and considerable
numbers of men were therefore laid off or discharged. The percentage
of unemployment among members of trade unions increased
from 2.14 in June to 13 .05 in December, and reached 16.48 in March
of 1921.
The reactions of the great slump in prices were necessarily felt
also in the field of speculation and investment. Generally speaking,
when prices are going up, it is expedient for the investor to purchase
stocks, which give him a share in the ownership of property which
is presumably increasing in value. On the other hand, when prices
are going down, it is generally expedient for the investor to purchase
bonds, which give him a claim to money whose purchasing power is
on the increase. Of course, he does not generally immediately
realize the turn of the tide, so what statisticians call a "lag" is observable,
but that the change was realized fairly soon after it occurred
is evident from the fact that while in July of 1920 the stocks sold on
the Montreal exchange aggregated 597,763 shares and the bonds only
$780,250, in December the" shares sold numbered only 269,560—a figure
which has not been equalled in the early months of 1921—while the
bonds sold amounted to $8,228,600.
So far, the economic history of 1921 has been a continuation
of that of the latter half of 1920—a period of reaction. It is to be
hoped that 1922 will see a return to fairly stable and normal conditions,
such as existed before the war.
Obituary.—1920: Jan. 24. Z. A. Lash, K.C., Deputy Minister
of Justice, 1872-1876. Feb. 6. Sir James A. Grant, M.D., M.P.
for Russell, 1865-1873, for Ottawa, 1892-1896. Feb. 7. Louis A.
Lapointe, M.P. for St. James, Montreal, P.Q. The Hon. Charles
Langelier, Judge of the Sessions of the Peace, Quebec (Provincial
Secretary, 1891-1892). Feb. 8. The Hon. Sir William Glenholme
Falconbridge, Chief Justice of the Court of King's Bench, Ontario.
Feb. 14. David Marshall, M.P. for East Elgin. April 28. The Hon.
A. G. Mackay, Commissioner of Crown Lands, Ontario, 1904-1905,
and Minister of Municipal Affairs, Alberta, 1918-1920. May 2. The
Hon. Roderick H. Clive Pringle, of Cobourg, Ont., Senator. May 4.
Major-General Sir Donald Alex. MacDonald, C.M.G., I.S.O., Quartermaster-General
of the Canadian Militia, 1904-1917. June 7. The
Hon. Valentine Winkler, Minister of Agriculture, Manitoba; Lieutenant-Colonel
Frederick Toller, Comptroller of Currency, 1881-1910.
July 11. The Hon. Wm. Dennis, of Halifax, Senator. Aug. 19. The
Hon. James M. Douglas, of Tantallon, Saskatchewan, Senator.
Sept. 5. The Baroness Macdonald, of Earnscliffe. Sept. 7. The
Hon. S. M. Parent, Premier of Quebec. Sept. 19. The Hon.
Robert Beaven, Premier of British Columbia, 1882-1883. Oct.
8. J. M. Courtney, C.M.G., I.S.O., Deputy Minister of Finance,
1878-1906. Oct. 27. The Hon. Benjamin Prince, of Saskatchewan.
Senator. Nov. 8. The Hon. Lytton W. Shatford, of Vancouver,
Senator. Dec. 12. Col. the Hon. Edward Gawlor Prior, Lieut.-
governor of British Columbia, 1919-1920. 1921: Jan. 2. Sir Frank